![]() Lucas is likely the one to blame for poor performances. There’s very little good acting in the prequel films, even though they feature a cohort of legendary stars, from Samuel L. As Corliss pointed out, it’s not entirely clear that Christensen was to blame for Anakin’s failures as a character. Still, in recent years, some Star Wars fans have made a concerted effort to forgive Christensen. Read More: We Ranked the 40 Best Star Wars Moments He largely blamed Lucas for any acting failures in the picture: “It’s a melancholy fact that the Star Wars films with the strongest acting and densest mood are The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi-the two that Lucas didn’t direct.” ![]() Scott wrote in the New York Times when Revenge of the Sith premiered in 2005, “Hayden Christensen plays Anakin Skywalker’s descent into evil as a series of petulant bad moods.” Corliss was slightly kinder, directing most of his ire at a “stiff and humorless” Portman rather than Christensen. He earned two Razzies for Episodes II and III. Christensen’s performance is bad, almost unforgivably so. The series was-and remains-Lucas’s elaborate reconstruction of his Saturday-matinee memories and fantasies.”īut let’s not kid ourselves: The weakest part of the trilogy was the stilted romance between Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman). There’s nothing deep or emotionally grand about this enterprise, but Star Wars never occupied that part of the cinema spectrum. ![]() It doesn’t … It’s gorgeously designed and color-coordinated the god who created this galaxy was working from a very rich palette. When Attack of the Clones premiered in 2002, he wrote, “Like the army of clones deployed in Episode II, a gaggle of critics has already spread the news that the picture stinks. TIME’s Richard Corliss was an early defender of the prequels. Hayden Christensen in London on Karwai Tang-WireImage And, of course, Ewan McGregor is handsome and charming, which is perhaps why LucasFilm has been endeavoring for 17 years to get him back on the giant lizard saddle and reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi. ![]() Certain scenes are particularly meme-able, like Obi-Wan Kenobi telling Anakin Skywalker that he has the “higher ground” and Anakin’s cringe-worthy speech about hating sand.Ĭritics have pointed out that Lucas’ films were politically prescient and predicted the rise of fascist sentiment in American politics. John Williams’ score is epic, particularly “Duel of the Fates.” The lightsaber fight between Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn and Ray Park’s spikey-faced Darth Maul is among the best in the franchise. Squint and you’ll find things to love about these movies. In the same way that I think Space Jam is a perfect movie (even though it’s an objectively bad film), plenty of friends and colleagues will happily rewatch the Star Wars prequels over and over again, ironically or sincerely. Nearly two decades later, the affection lingers. The gratuitous CGI creatures that irked adults delighted children. The newfound goodwill comes mainly from Millennials and Gen Zers who watched the prequels as kids, before they could scrutinize the films through a critical lens. In doing so, they have paved the way for a Christensen comeback. But lately, a vocal subset of Star Wars fans has set out to reclaim these movies as decent, if not quite good. The movies were terrible-so terrible that Harrison Ford didn’t even want to acknowledge their existence when he sat down with TIME for an interview about the legacy of the franchise. Casual Star Wars fans may find this confusing: Weren’t the prequel movies awful? Weren’t all those bits about the galactic senate rather dull and Jar Jar Binks the absolute worst creation to ever grace the screen? Wasn’t Christensen the most maligned actor in the much-hated series? When LucasFilm announced that Hayden Christensen would don the Darth Vader suit to reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker opposite Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars die-hards met the news with joy. Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives on Disney+ on May 27, and with it another wave of Star Wars prequel nostalgia.
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